Katrina & Iraq: Natural and Man-Made Disasters

There is a lot of finger pointing from the fallout of Katrina. Nobody is mad at Katrina. They are mad at the response by local, state and federal agencies. Probably the seminal mistake that tripped everyone else that followed was the decision by 100,000 residents not to leave New Orleans. No one in town- therefore no casulities. What were they thinking? New Orleans is below sea level and a Force 5 hurricane is coming down the tracks. Do you feel lucky? What percentage were opportunists? What percentage just couldn't cope with such a big decision? Some didn't want to leave their pets and I would probably have stayed behind also if I couldn't round my pets up.

There is another aspect of this disaster that bears looking at. Bush, prior presidents and Congress are somewhat to blame for not preparing and preventing the tragedy in the first place. Our government is largely influenced by special interests and powerful lobbies. Simply there was not much lobbying for prepartion and prevention of hurricane and flooding threats to New Orleans. Unlike the intense lobbying for the war in Iraq. There is a lot of money in warmaking .

For flood prevention and preparation, America will need to attract better men than Bush. To attract better men , the power and influence of lobbies will have to be mitigated. The only way to that goal is to have less federal power and more state power. It won't be perfect. But it will be better. Then money from Louisiana won't go to Washington to be spent on an Iraq war . Instead the money will stay at home and solve the flooding threats to New Orleans.